Greetings, readers!
This is my first Smurfs fic, so I hope you like it. Brainy is my favorite character; who's yours? Let me know in the comments below, as well as any other questions or concerns you might have.
Also, a quick shoutout to SharkBait1027, RONbatakappu and to a Guest for commenting so immediately! I appreciate the feedback very much, so thanks again!
That being said, this one-shot is Brainy-centric and extremely angsty, so consider yourselves informed.
Without further ado, the story.
...
ASDM
The Fight
Smurfs One-Shot
ASDM
It was the second time this week, but Hefty and Brainy were at each other's throats again. Well, not literally (thank goodness!), but Papa had barely been able to separate them last time. At least they weren't about to murder each other with their irritated stares, because Brainy certainly would have had the home field advantage if looks could kill. Papa Smurf heard disharmony outside of his Lab and went to see what the commotion was now. There was never a dull moment for him, it seemed.
Hefty had taken some of Brainy's favourite novels. "What is with you and taking my books? You don't even read them!" Brainy exasperated. "Give them back."
"What's with you and smurfing them in the first place? If no one reads them, why do you still write?" He retorted. They were arguing in the middle of town, so many of their brothers were turning their heads (again).
"Why do you care? Just give them back, Hefty!" Brainy attempted to grab at them but Hefty pulled back and away just in time. Knowing he was nowhere strong enough to take on his brother, Brainy didn't push it. He got punted out of the village enough for his "advice" no one appreciated- he'd had enough.
It was at this point that Papa had gotten over to them (hopefully he could salvage this situation before it got too out of control) and intervened. "My little Smurfs, what's happened? What is all this fuss about?"
"Hefty's taken my books from my Mushroom, and I know he's not actually going to read them! I want them back!" Brainy demanded, a bleeding stare directed a Hefty all the while.
"Yeah, well what if I do want to read them?" Hefty asked, trying to work around his brother's argument. All Brainy did was irritate other smurfs with his quotations and rules. No one wanted to hear it anymore— he was like a broken record player and doing away with some of these books would do the trick. If only Hefty had gone to take them sooner.
He honestly thought he was doing everyone a favor.
"I don't think so." Brainy stated through his teeth. A few smurfs that had been a couple of feet away from them stepped back. They'd never heard Brainy this… threatening… before. Something was beginning to feel very wrong here, not just Brainy's book thief. "Give. Them. Back." Brainy iterated a final time. He wouldn't ask again.
"Now boys, be reasonable. Hefty, you two have had this problem before. I need you to return Brainy's things now; you know what you did to Brainy was not very smurfy." Papa ordered his son, but it wasn't harsh. "And Brainy, I need you to apologize to Hefty for whatever you might have said to offend him. He must have a motive for taking your things."
Sometimes Papa felt at a loss for his little smurflings. His eldest, Hefty, and one of his youngest, Brainy, had always had clashing personalities. Brainy was -well- the brains and Hefty was the brawn. Hefty was easier to take direction and council but did not always think things through, while Brainy was harder to reason with, yet calculated. He tried his best to console them and help them get along, but with these two smurfs Papa always had the most trouble. For smurfing out loud, Gutsy got along with Brainy better, and he shared much resemblance in character to Hefty. So what made Hefty and Brainy so opposing?
"Papa, you and I both know that nothing good has ever come out of Brainy's books or his advice," Hefty tried to explain to his father. "Every time I smurf to do something Brainy's calling me out like I'm a Smurfling! Why should I keep having to put up with him and his dumb quotations? They're not even useful!" Hefty spat the last sentence.
Brainy's heart was in his throat. He hadn't realized he was that much of a nuisance. But he did know that the only smurf who'd read his books was Clumsy, so he supposed that had been a clear fore-warning. Why hadn't he noticed before it had all come down to this? Why hadn't anyone expressed their feelings to him directly? Did they really not want to put up with him so much as to avoid him altogether? Brainy then for a fraction of a moment questioned his own intelligence.
But he knew without a doubt that the village needed rules. Everything in life had rules or restrictions. He was only trying to help them— why couldn't everyone just see that?
"Without any rules the village would be a mess!" Brainy reasoned.
"I bet we could smurf just fine without your rules! We don't need them at all!"
"Hefty, now you take that back this instant," Papa scolded his eldest son. "Rules are important in every society. Brainy may not always smurf about it in the right way, but he still cares about his brothers enough to try to help you." Hefty gave Brainy a cold glare.
..Nothing good has ever come out of Brainy's books or his advice..
They're not even useful!
Hefty's harsh feelings struck a final heart-string, the echoes of hatred vibrating through his head. He tried to block it out, to calm down, but he believed them.
"N-No, I get it." Brainy said at last, cutting Hefty off before he could make a reply. And the dark thoughts had by then already consumed Brainy's thinking, his eyes beginning to sting. "I guess that makes me j-just as useless then. You can burn them for all I care!" He ran away in the direction of his house. And the
tears
.
.
.
began
.
.
to
.
fall.
"Brainy!" Papa called for his son, but it was no use.
Grouchy, Clumsy, Smurfette, Gutsy and Handy, all closer friends of Brainy, had just happened to be in the middle of town when the fight had broken out and witnessed as Brainy now fled to his house. Gutsy, almost as close a friend as Clumsy, went after him, as the others were too shocked to move.
"Brainy! Brainy WAIT!" He called for his little brother, but there was no response save for muffled sobs. Effortlessly, though, Gutsy caught up to him, as his mushroom was quite a ways away still and running was never very tiring for him. Grabbing his brother by the wrist he turned Brainy to face him. He didn't like what he saw— His little brother, crying, shaking and in a world of pain. Large hot tears rolled down the sides of his reddening cheeks and his lips concocted an expression of helplessness and absolute terror. A voluminous ball of guilt immediately scaled his spine as Brainy struggled to free himself from his own iron grip.
"L-let me go!" Brainy half commanded, half sobbed. "Let me go, Gutsy!" Unable to escape Gutsy's grip and spent from the effort, Brainy stopped squirming, allowing his knees to buckle under him and meet the harsh ground. Embarrassed and utterly defeated, Brainy sobbed bitterly, his free hand holding his mouth as he wept.
And what made this situation so much better was that everyone was staring at him.
At the striking turn of events, Gutsy let go, not wishing to hurt him any further. His brother still continued to sob where he was, not even bothering to control himself. After all the fighting, kicking and public shame he'd endured from Hefty smurf, he really couldn't hold it in any more. He cried for what seemed like an eternity before his aforementioned brother timidly broke the silence with a call of his name. Finally Brainy, spent now, turned his gaze up to the smurf with his heart on his sleeve—someone he was supposed to easily love and respect — and felt only internal anguish.
"Why Hefty?" he said at last. "Why do you do these things to me?" But Hefty after such an emotional display said nothing, unable to respond out of fear of breaking the sky with just his words. "Why is it so difficult to understand that I only want to help you?" Brainy's breaths and heart rate steadied enough for some composure to return, which in turn allowed him enough fortitude to stand. Gutsy and company could only stare.
"I don't mean to smurf so much trouble, truly I don't, but no one ever smurfs my advice! They call it advice for a reason, you know. But maybe my quotations don't do much for the village— so I'll just stop." The crowd gasped.
Such a thing was never expected out of Brainy Smurf. Stop writing quotations?! That's what the majority of his free-time generally consisted of! And now all of a sudden— out of the blue —he's just decided to stop? For what, the village? For Hefty's sake? He was practically humbling himself before the court, also something totally out of character for this particular smurf.
His eyes were steel and his gaze was something unwitnessed by smurfs before. Hefty trembled before his brother's sight, against his own will. He was speechless, just like everyone else.
"I'm s-sorry." Hefty said at last, holding out the books towards Brainy in hopes that he'll take them back. His brother visibly blanched.
"Yo—you are?" he stammered. For another long moment Brainy stood in contemplation before shyly accepting the books. "Well… I suppose that settles it, then. I—" it took everything Brainy had to apologize. "I'm sorry, too. For everything." Clutching the books to his chest like a lifeline, he backed away before retiring to his home.
...
The crowd dispersed in a deafening silence, but soon reverted back to their daily activities. Shaken from such an experience, Hefty also immediately went to his mushroom and was not seen for the rest of the evening.
There were no more fights— or quotations —after that.
Thank you again for reading! Until next time, keep the cycle going and read on.
Salutations and Fairfarren,
ASDM